Hamas admits Gaza blast that killed eight (Roundup)

Jun 13, 2008, 13:22 GMT

Gaza City - Hamas admitted Friday that its own militants were behind a huge explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya that had killed eight Palestinians, including a four-month-old baby.

The radical Islamic movement ruling Gaza had initially said the early Thursday afternoon blast was caused by an Israeli air strike.

Militants in the Strip had responded by launching a barrage of more than 40 rockets and mortars at southern Israel.

Hamas' armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, issued a statement Friday, saying the blast was an accident, caused by the premature detonation of an explosive device being prepared by Hamas militants in the house for use in an 'important' attack against Israel.

'The martyrs who went to heaven on Thursday at the Beit Lahiya house explosion died while they were making the final preparations on their way to carry out an important special Jihad operation,' the statement said.

The massive explosion had reduced the two-storey house of senior Hamas commander Ahmed Hamoudeh to rubble and was heard throughout northern Gaza.

The Hamas statement said six of the dead were members of the al- Qassam Brigades, including three field commanders.

Four-month-old Nour Hamoudeh, the daughter of Majdi Adel Hamoudeh, one of the dead field commanders, and another, 22-year-old relative who was not an al-Qassam militant, were also killed.

Ahmed Hamoudeh, the owner of the house, is said to be a senior explosive expert for Hamas. He also once ran in municipal elections and won a seat in his town's municipal council.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said militants fired 22 mortar shells and 21 rockets at Israel Thursday. They launched at least four more on Friday.

The latest violence comes after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's inner security cabinet decided earlier this week to give Egyptian efforts to broker a truce in Gaza another chance, and to put off a large-scale military invasion of the Strip.

The forum of some 12 senior ministers, however, also instructed the Israeli military to continue preparations for such a large-scale invasion, in case the truce talks failed.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, the de-facto prime minister in Gaza, reiterated Thursday that his movement demands the opening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the south of the Strip as part of any truce.

According to Hamas, Israel has thus far rejected that demand. Israel, for its part, also demands 'progress' on the issue of Corporal Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza by Hamas for the past two years. But Hamas demands the release of some 450 Palestinian militants from Israeli prisons in return for his freedom. Israel has thus far rejected the list submitted by Hamas via Egypt.

'If there's going to be calm (a truce), there should also be an end to the siege and a specific timeline for the opening of the crossings and for the kind of goods or products that would enter Gaza,' Haniya told a reception in Gaza City late Thursday.

'The important thing is to open the Rafah crossing, and this should be part of the deal for the calm,' he said.

Apart from the indirect talks on a truce, Israel boycotts Hamas because of its refusal to recognize its right to exist and renounce violence. It has also tightened its economic blockade of Gaza since the radical Islamic movement seized sole control of the Strip exactly one year ago by ousting security forces answering to President Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah party.

But while shunning Hamas, Israel has revived peace talks with Abbas.

The Israeli army removed 10 roadblocks in the southern West Bank Friday, as part of Israel's commitment to ease restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank and the talks with Abbas.

The physical obstacles were removed south of the city of Hebron, an army spokeswoman said.

She said the military uprooted a total of 90 obstacles since it began implementing the plan to ease movement in the West Bank about two months ago, the spokeswoman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The latest roadblock removal comes ahead of the arrival of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region Sunday.

The United Nations agency which monitors Palestinian movement and access, however, has said in its latest quarterly report that the total number of roadblocks in the West Bank - which changes constantly - has in fact risen since shortly before the peace talks were revived in November: from 566 to 607 as of early May.